unlimited colors

Once again, we present our end-of-the-year favorites from the Burst & Bloom family and friends. It is our hope that you might discover something that has made us happy in 2017, and that it will make you happy as well.

We’d like to welcome The Great Auk to the Burst & Bloom family! The Great Auk is the acoustic and sometimes semi-plugged-in duo of Carrie Bradley and Bernie Jungle. Their songs run from acoustic to electric, big harmonies to near whispers, and distortion to silence, as Bradley and Jungle deliver stories, vivid imagery from the mundane to the phantasmagoric, humor, a love of language, and a lot of conversation between the strings.

For our 50th release, we invited Burst & Bloom artists and friends to cover songs from our catalog. Every artist who’s released an album on Burst & Bloom has been covered for this collection. Only one song per release is represented. Burst & Bloom 50 will be available free-of-charge digitally in the coming weeks. Thank you for your support and stay tuned!

Brown Bird was a beloved band whose founder David Lamb passed from leukemia in 2014. This 2-CD tribute was originally conceived of, and compiled to help raise money for his treatment. Though he had heard most of this album, unfortunately, Lamb passed before it could see release. We’re releasing “A Light I Can Feel: A Tribute to Brown Bird” in 2017 in his memory, to raise money for Sweet Relief, and to continue to share the music of Brown Bird with the world.

This highly-personal collection includes thirty-two interpretations of Brown Bird songs by friends, fans, and collaborators, including:

Buzzy was a photocopied zine, edited and published by Gregory S. Moss and Dylan Metrano between 1993 and 1998. It was notable for its punk rock DIY spirit, rambling freeform interviews, and post-gonzo journalism. The zines themselves were printed in extremely short runs and have been long out-of-print. This book compiles for the first time the best interviews and writing from Buzzy’s five-year run.

Guy Capecelatro III’s new album “Hope is the Thing with Feathers” is a sublime listen, a stirring meditation on mortality. “Hope is the Thing with Feathers” came out of a dark, dark turn in my life when, last February, my wife was diagnosed with a rare and incurable form of cancer” says Capecelatro. “The year has been terrifying and debilitating, rife with a wide range of treatments and hospital visits. In the thick of all this, I was able to funnel some of what we were dealing with into song”.

Capecelatro’s always been a literary songwriter; each song a short story, a character study. This album, taken as a whole, is his most honest and open account of all the feelings, the big decisions and the minutiae that are at the heart of his current experiences.

These songs explore sadness, frustration, anger and fear. But importantly- crucially, these are love songs. These are songs of life. Still.

“Hope is the Thing with Feathers” is heart-swelling and breathtaking. A fearless and monumental work. Capecelatro at his best.

The album features an array of guest vocalists, including Jocelyn Mackenzie(Pearl and the Beard), Anna Vogelzang, Jason Anderson (Strand of Oaks), Juliet Nelson, Gregg Porter(The Bikes, Unbunny), Peter Squires(Landladys, The Farthest Forests), Mara Flynn, Seth Gooby & Isis Alis-Gooby(Breakfastsong), Jim Rioux(Darlings of the Soil), and Jarid del Deo(Unbunny). Other guests include Emily Hope Price(Pearl and the Beard) and Jerusha Robinson(Brown Bird, South China), who both played cello and sang; and Jeremy Robinson(Brown Bird, South China) who played guitar.